Imaging devices are being implemented with more and more features as consumer demand for such features increases over time. Many such features, such as autofocus and image stabilization, require multiple lenses and other optical devices to be integrated together into the imaging device. At the same time, the imaging devices are themselves being integrated into smaller and more portable electronics devices. As a result, such imaging devices experience wider temperature changes in typical use and, due the overall miniaturization, are more prone to optical defects related to thermal displacement of the various optical devices with respect to one another. One type of thermal displacement is referred to as thermal despace, which is a change in the separation between two or more optics devices, measured along a common optical axis, that is caused by a change in temperature of one or more of the optics devices and the imaging device.
Conventional methods used to address thermal despace, such as using actuator motion to compensate for the thermal displacement, are typically detrimental to operation of the imaging device. Relying on an actuator to compensate for thermal despace can limit the functionality of the imaging device and/or render the device inoperable at certain temperatures. Further, the additional actuator use can cause undue wear of the actuator and foreshorten the operable lifetime of the imaging device. Thus, there is a need for an improved methodology to address thermal despace compensation in optics assemblies.